Pretend Play

Some of the coins are dropping which brings me to three of the mantras of Autism

Repeat - Repeat and repeat - Many things will need more than one trial - heck more than 100 tries
Many times when they seem like they are not "getting something" - they actually are - and it will come out another day - never give up
Stimmy periods atleast in R's case seem to be necessary to him - so instead of getting overwhelmed by the stimminess its important to realise that stimming is his coping skill and one should think of it as "Self regulation" and not as "Self Stimulation"

I have swithced brands of his soap and lotion to natural Burt's Bees stuff

I think we are seeing the beginning of Pretend Play -

1. He put his toy phone on my ear - and he has finally understood what a phone is for
2. He pretended that the stem of his Littlep people Umbrella was a straw andd drank out if it ( it totally could be that he was thinking it was a real straw)
3. He also played with Leo and June figures and kised them and did Head Shourlders knees and toes with June

- as usual a step forward was preceded by a period of a week 10 days of a more stimmy R ( of course it could also be all the changes - I was out of town for 5 nights - he changed classes and is now in a classroom with more kids and fewer teachers - as he prefers adults - no doubt this is not a good change to him )